Magical Mice!
Posted by Nathaniel.
I had to go to the Apple store yesterday to get another power supply for my laptop. I have three places where I use the computer (office, home, and apartment) and I kept forgetting my existing one one place or another. Anyway, if you have lots of them you don’t have to carry them around.
While I was there though, I picked up one of Apple’s new Magic Mice. I have to say that it’s definitely the best bluetooth mouse I’ve ever used. The laser tracking is really nice, it has decent heft, and fits in your hand well. The cool thing though is that the surface of the mouse works as a multi-touch trackpad so you can scroll around by sliding your finger on the surface of the mouse. It works really nicely. Right and left click work too with the mouse sensing which finger you’re using to click.
Now for the negatives.
1) I didn’t actually need a new mouse, but couldn’t help myself.
2) There isn’t a middle mouse button, which would be handy for pasting in UNIX programs. I assume this could be fixed in software though.
3) I actually prefer a corded mouse. (The batteries in the Magic Mouse are supposed to last around 4 months, so this might just not be an issue.)
So, in conclusion, both of Apple’s mice right now are pretty good and I really like the “Mighty Mouse” (now just the “Apple Mouse”), but the ball on my old mice seem to get jammed up every 6 months or so sending the mice to mouse heaven. The fact that the new mouse doesn’t have any moving parts should hopefully solve that problem.